CU Nursing - Spring/Summer 2022 - 6

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COL L EG E
Continued from previous page
yourself with smart people to work in
partnerships and make a difference, "
she said. " Listening to them was the
best thing I did. "
Marilyn worked alongside people like
Dr. Gerri Steinke to create curriculum to
train child care providers and preschool
personnel how to properly take care of
Nurses and practitioners need to
work with families and children with
disabilities and develop a knowledge
base. That's a real strength. We need
more people in the field who have a
passion for them. " - Marilyn Krajicek, EdD, RN, FAAN
infants, toddlers and young children
with disabilities and chronic conditions.
The program was called First Start. The
duo took it state by state, nationwide.
Marilyn later wrote several books about
the First Start philosophy.
NATIONAL RESOURCE CENTER
In 1995, Marilyn created the National
Resource Center for Health and Safety
in Child Care and Early Education
(NRC) at the CU College of Nursing.
The NRC went on to create several
standards-based resources to promote
health and safety in child care and
early education, including childhood
obesity that the Center for Disease
Control uses today to set national
guidelines. Marilyn served as director
of NRC until 2021.
In 2013, Marilyn worked with Scott
Harpin, PhD, MPH, RN, chair of the
Maternal Child-Health Division, to create
and oversee a dual-degree program.
Continued on page 8
CU College of Nursing | Spring/Summer 2022
Marilyn Krajicek and
Wendy Nehring share
a toast together.
Continued - In the Words of Friends and Co-workers
From Dr. Wendy Nehring - I met Marilyn at an annual nursing division meeting
of the American Association on Mental Retardation (today it's known as
the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities). I
remember specifically the meeting in the mid-to-late 1980s when the meeting
was in Los Angeles. I was thrilled that Marilyn, a leader in the field and the
author of books and articles that I had read for school, talked to me. I had just
started in my PhD program.
Through the years I got to know Marilyn much better, and we became
colleagues and close friends. She was a wonderful mentor to me. Marilyn was
a co-sponsor for my induction into the American Academy of Nursing in 2001.
Throughout time, we have written articles and the first three editions of the
Scope and Standards of Practice in this specialty. I have been a consultant for
her on her grants and she has been the same for me.
Marilyn is legendary in the field of intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Her scholarship and service to the field and to individuals and their families
whom she has known over the years is exemplary. She is one-of-a-kind and it
has been my tremendous privilege to work with her and call her friend.
Besides sharing her immense knowledge and skills in pediatrics and
developmental issues with children to countless students at all levels, both
nursing and interprofessional, Marilyn has brought in millions of dollars in
program grants that has elevated the status of the nursing school. She has
also impacted the community, region, state, and nation with her scholarship
accomplishments.
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